Nothing changes if nothing changes. Simply saying if you do not make the simple change needed then nothing will change for you. This goes for you slacking off and not doing things you know you should be doing. Instead of doing them you’ve grown used to not doing them. We have these grand ideas for what we want to achieve and do in our lives, but we tend to take the easy path. The easy path is a routine that we have gotten used to doing day by day. This is one thing I’ve noticed about myself and I’ve been pushing myself to do things that I used to do but let fall to the side. Really in a sense of getting back to what I did early in my design career and how wide eyed I was with everything , working on design project and etc. Calligraphy is such a wonderful thing and I love having connected with so many of you and thank you all for supporting me as well as purchasing products and as simple as clicking the link and seeing what I have. I’m forever grateful 🙏🏾. Thank you and now let’s continue this journey.
Chase Dreams not People
In our life we tend to end up chasing people instead of our dreams. I for one fell into the trap of chasing people more than my actual dreams. But once I stopped chasing people and refocused my vision on chasing my dreams I became more focused on my goals.
The people that we want and need in our life will come and stay. Once I learned this I stopped chasing those people who wanted to leave and not be involved with me anymore. A great example is the feeling you get when someone deletes you off of snapchat and or unfollows you on instagram,twitter for example.
Because wanting that human connection with someone else can be a need that we need to constantly feel. But if you are needing and or wanting the wrong thing it can end up being the wrong thing for you. Just think if you focused on your goals as a creative and or person in general how much more beneficial will that be for you?
Avoiding Stupid Stuff as a creative person
As a creative person whether you are an artist, designer, or you do anything that requires creative thinking there’s tons of things that will take your attention. There’s a lot of products, ads, videos that will grab you and take hold. The way that I have been able to avoid them and or take back control is a very simple thing.
The way that I used to get so lost in the things that do not matter is astounding. I was so lost in reading tons of blogs and looking at so much work that others have done. Not saying that stuff is stupid at all. The stupid thing is me spending time doing something that is not working in my favor. That habit is easy to be learned.
When I gained control over knowing ok that’s enough time you’ve spent looking at work and reading blogs. The over exposure to being influenced can lead to you being demotivated and not having confidence. But maybe that will inspire you to continuously improve and learn to know what to do and not to do.
Other stupid things is to not be able to work with what you’ve got. Society has us thinking we have to have certain tools to be able to produce. The tools that you have you shouldn’t be a hindrance. Because once you gain the skills you need having better tools will only allow you to get better.
Avoid the stupid things of thinking you are not good enough. Well you know that I was not good enough. I was not good enough to be confident in my work. Then I was able to gain confident by posting my work daily on my instagram page. Once you gain the momentum and also finding friends who are into the same thing as you makes a difference. There is no need to feel you’re a lone wolf.
Avoid the stupid things of thinking followers and likes make the difference. The stupid thing of basing your worth on others does no good for you. The numbers do not make that big of a difference. I say that because I would rather have 10,000 followers 2000 devoted supporters compared to having 20,000 followers with 200 supporters.
There’s endless amount of stupid things you have to make the choice whether you will avoid them or not.
How to get better at calligraphy and brush pen lettering
Ever since I started learning calligraphy I learned one secret. The best way to get better it is to practice daily. The same thing can be applied to many other things. Because the daily practice no matter how long it is will help you improve much faster.
There were many days I felt as if I was not improving and or all of my work was starting to look the same. One of the main reasons i’d say was because of how I was practicing and studying. There are many ways you can improve in any field.
You have to practice and study. By study I mean you have to look at what others around you are doing. Because if you have no idea what they are doing then how will you know what to aim for. Another thing is remembering practicing is good, but if you are not focused while practicing you will waste time.
The aspect of having a dedicated time of focused practice no matter how long will make the difference. Because if you want to practice writing calligraphy, but you are trying to multi task and or you’re being interrupted you will most likely not have great results. Being able to block out all distractions and etc will help you.
Practicing calligraphy daily will motivate you to want to get better each day. One of the main things is to learn the basics first before trying advanced techniques.
How I Feel About Papyrus
This is absolutely hilarious. I also like how they had the ending in comic sans .
Focus on Getting better Not Bigger
This is a quote I heard recently from the Creative Peptalk podcast. When I first heard it I was at a loss for words. The reason why is because I focused so much on getting bigger instead of better. The aspect of having a lot of followers has been a thing that many of us want. When in actuality we should focus on getting better.
Because the idea of focusing on getting better is more important. Those who focus on getting more followers than having better work will have catching up to do. The reason why I focused so much more on producing better work is because I know I am producing great work. Having confidence in your work is what makes the difference.
There’s nothing wrong with being confident, but being a cocky asshole makes no sense. Because we all start somewhere and have produced sub-par work. But lets not get off topic here and stay focused.
There have been times on instagram that I am shocked by the amount of followers people have. But then I do a little digging and realize that they either know how to market themselves well and or they are caught up in the numbers. Because its easy to see who’s caught up in the numbers and appearing bigger than they actually are. The like to follower ratio is the giveaway.
Focusing on producing better work and dedicating yourself to being better than those with bigger followings will allow you to have leverage. I say leverage because whenever you have someone come across your work they will be in love. The main thing with all of this is to not forget that you have to share you work. Do not be afraid to do such a thing. Because I know that you have work many people would love to see.
Just get started and stop waiting
All you have to do is just get started. The habit of starting will give you the small amount of motivation that can lead to a lot. By that I mean the most difficult thing that we experience is just the habit of starting. Many of us have great things we want to accomplish. While we think of how great they can be we fall into the habit of wishful thinking.
As a graphic designer/calligrapher I constantly have new ideas and things that I want to create. Being able to create something new is not hard for me. The main thing is to not get burnt out trying to do too much. Then the situation of not letting my creativity control me and me not having control of it.
When you do the simplest things such as if you want to get the ball rolling with posting daily to social media whether its instagram, twitter and etc find out a way to make it simple as possible to do that. When I learned how to do such a thing with instagram posting daily became way easier.
Recently I learned the concept of working backwards from the end goal. I mean that was not the first time I heard of that concept. The main thing is I never knew that is what I was doing. Whenever you realize what the end goal is and work backwards it becomes easy.
A great example lets see if you want to post daily to instagram is to first look at the end goal which is to post daily. The way to post daily is to have images in your camera roll ready to post. Then you want to already have the hashtags created. You can have them pre-written in your notepad. So whenever you post to instagram all you have to do is select your picture and then write an interesting caption and then copy your hashtags from your notepad.
The thing that you have wanted to just requires you to get started. Stop waiting and get started.
Getting featured on periscope while streaming calligraphy
The past week I had tried out streaming my morning practice sessions on periscope. Because if you don’t follow me on snapchat and Instagram you’d know I post what I’m working on every morning (most of the time ). I loved how it happened organically and I wasn’t fully awake and aware what getting featured meant.
Because I was just hanging out with friends and just doing what I usually do. Then I get a notification saying you’ve been featured and then another saying that periscopetv has retweeted your stream.
Immediately I got nervous and was thinking to hard about what I was doing. Because imagine going from having like 5-6 people viewing then it goes up to 80 then 100 in a matter of minutes. Something like that happening was great for me to see. I say that it was great to get featured and I’m thankful for periscope taking the time to do such a thing for me.
There honestly is nothing I did to get featured other than stayed consistent with streaming and just having fun.
You shouldn’t be so focused on having immediate success. Just focus on building one brick at a time. While building you have to have patience.
How to Refill Pilot Parallel Pens for CHEAP
In this video I go over how to refill pilot parallel pens for cheap. The need to purchase cartridge refills for pilot parallel pens as shown in this video is pretty useless. I say that it is useless to do so because you can save money by refilling them. Also you will not be limited by the color selection either.
Swim in your Own Current
As a creative person and or a person in general we tend to not follow what we enjoy. By that I mean we follow what is so called trendy at the time. Then we conform our mentality and work to be cool. But don’t let me come across as I am saying it is bad.
What I am saying is that you should stay in your own lane. Staying in your own lane aka swimming in your own current. Instead of following doing what everyone else is doing do your own thing. There’s nothing wrong with following trends but if you do it your own way you’ll stand out more.
Which will show you basically putting your own mix on what is trendy. Then you’ll have people copying what you are doing. When people start copying you, you know that you are doing something right.
So do not be afraid to stay in your own lane and or swimming in your own current. The fear is nothing to be afraid of. Especially standing out and doing things your own way, that’ll be more fulfilling than just following what society puts upon you.
